With newer handsets coming with
ultra-slim profiles, incredibly beefed-up multimedia features and soon to have streaming music and television (Sprint
and Verizon started this in the U.S.), do manufacturers have a battery power crisis on their hands? Although handset
battery technology like Lithium-Ion has progressed into even smaller Lithium-Ion Polymer - which can be molded into the
nooks and crannies of almost any cellphone model - the milliamp count has not really gone up. This is the actual amount
of power squeezed into each cellular handset battery. Most phones these days are made not to accept bigger and fatter
extended-life batteries since designs are becoming so exotic. So, this leaves us with one standard battery that has a
800 to 1,100 mAH capacity.What happens as manufacturers and carriers continue to load feature upon feature into their handsets? These features (like an MP3 player) will certainly eat up more battery juice than a handset that just makes calls. Add streaming video, always-on Bluetooth and high-speed broadband like EV-DO into the picture, and battery juice gets eaten up quicker and quicker. Either the chipset makers need to really start making more power-efficient designs for handsets, or a revolutionary breakthrough in micro-battery technology will need to happen. Consumers are used to days and days of cellphone use (at least standly) before re-charging and if the trend continues, most phones might make it a day if that. Consumer confidence will be splintered a bit if this happens. So, solutions please?
